Star City Starlets

Episode 21 – published in the February 2008 issue of Bella Magazine

By Krisha Chachra

Summary of the Storyline:  After she was encouraged by Austin's mother to forget him and move on with her life, Jasmine travels to Washington D.C. to bail David out of jail where he was mistakenly being held for his suspected involvement in Austin's stabbing.  Meanwhile, Austin is out of the hospital and prepares to finally be reunited with Stella and their son.    

Austin stopped looking for his soul mate a long time ago. He wasn't even sure that soul mates existed. The universe worked in ways he couldn't understand.  After years of bar and bed hopping, he had finally found someone who had screeched his run-away train-wrecked life to a halt. Much like a prairie dog poking his head up from the ground to feel the first morning light, Austin felt like he was discovering a new day when he was around her. Jasmine was his soul mate; he was convinced if there ever was such a perfect fit, it was her.

And then she was gone. A true soul mate wouldn't have left him. But the truth was that even when she was in medical school, even when she lived thousands of miles away, she never did leave him. At least not his heart.

He was back at home. He hadn't slept in his own bed for over two weeks now.  His short term coma which was inflicted by massive bleeding and a sharp shock kept him in the hospital longer than he had wanted. Once he learned he had a son, the thought of reuniting with him made Austin as anxious as agitated bull. He wanted out of that hospital to see him. Sure, he had seen the boy in passing. He was a tall, skinny adolescent, quiet with deliberate, curious eyes. Stella would bring him around sometimes when she picked up Sean Dole from practice. Austin always wondered who the shy youngster took after. Certainly the oily, foul-mouthed Sean. The Majestic's lead singer wasn't one of Austin's favorite people, but he tolerated Sean because the man could sing like the angels even though he danced with the devil.

Any minute now, Stella would come in with his son. Austin would finally see him.  Austin had spent all day cleaning his house, straightening the furniture, arranging all the books and magazines as if the young boy would notice the order and cleanliness he had missed all his life. Austin didn't know what he would say to him; it had been a long time since he had been seven.

There was a knock on the door. Austin took a deep breath and wiped his clammy hands down his jeans. He was still feeling a little light headed from his injury but he knew the spinning had more to do with the little man he was about to meet.  He opened the door. But instead of Stella and his son, he saw another familiar face, his mother.

"Mom?" he was surprised.  "What are you doing here?"

"I came over for dinner," she lifted up two wax bags of food neatly wrapped from the restaurant she worked for.  "It's leftovers."

She walked in and he followed behind her.

"Mom, it's really not a good time.  I'm expecting company."

"Don't be foolish!  You? Company?"  She snickered.  "Since when do you have to make things up to get rid of your mother?  Besides, it is just dinner; we'll make some small talk and tell some lies.  Not everything has to be so serious, sometimes it is just fun."

He was puzzled by her good mood; a state of bliss that never comes after a hard day on her feet waitressing.

"Besides," she spun around to face him, "I bumped into one of your old friends at the restaurant."

Austin led her into the kitchen where she started to reheat the food.  "Mom?" he asked.  "Do you believe in soul mates?"

"Honey, where did you get a crazy little idea like that?"  She paused for a moment and then stopped what she was doing.  "Austin, I do believe in soul mates but I think there isn't just one.  A soul mate isn't a person who is your life partner or someone who makes you feel good about yourself all the time.  I believe a true soul mate is a mirror.  Someone who makes you look at yourself and reflects back to you the person you have the potential to be if you got over the things that hold you back.  A real soul mate helps to put you on the track of your greatest person, and then they walk away.  And you have to let them go.  Otherwise the next soul mate has no room to enter your doorway.  Why are you thinking about this baby?"

Austin was speechless.  He never had expected his mother to be so deep. 

"Is this about that Jasmine girl of yours?" she asked. "If it is honey, I have to tell you.  I saw her.  And even though you loved her, I'm not sure if she helped you down the right path."

"You saw her?" Just as he asked the question, the doorbell rang. In a daze, he ambled to the door and opened it. 

Stella smiled her beautiful, flawless smile. She looked radiant and happy to see him. In the dusk evening, her dark hair shined with a halo of the setting sun. He locked eyes with her and for a moment, his mind parted and a flood of clarity filled in. He followed her slender arm down to where it was joined with someone else's. He stared into those gemstone blue eyes of his seven year old son. 

And at that moment, he recognized the true meaning of a soul mate.